Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “iPhone 15 How to Spot a Fake One”.
So, as you guys probably already know, there are companies out there that make fake iPhones. Sometimes they look like previous generation iPhones. Sometimes they look like the most current generation of iPhone in this box. I’Ve gone ahead and ordered uh one of these supposed fakes. I don’t think it’s going to be very convincing, but who knows we’ll find out? However, there is a real problem of people purchasing things they think are iPhones that actually aren’t, and sometimes the packaging is nearly identical to the true, authentic iPhone, so Apple made.
Some changes to their recent packaging that are pretty cool. They’Ve had some elements added to the box that are only exposed via UV light, so I’m going to flash this UV light right here. You can see a section of the Box gets exposed with a little scanner area there. That’S not on this box, which is the 14 pro Max compared to the 15 Pro Max same, if I come up near the top here versus the older 14 pro max box, so obviously Apple was dealing with some sort of issue with this.
In order to enhance the security on each one of their packages, but it doesn’t end there, they also added some UV aspects to the pull tabs that normally seal up your iPhone box. But there you go so this actually has an Apple logo and says iPhone on it, and I believe, yes, that is on both of the pull tabs, that you will pull off of the new iPhone 15 Pro box. So for this next one, the UV light is not necessary, but I’m just going to use it as a flash flashlight in this scenario, because it’s so tiny it’s on the inside of the type- C Port. You can see on mine here.
It says a 3101 China that is a difficult place to print something, and I imagine if somebody really wanted to make an amazing counterfeit. They could probably replicate this scenario, but it is one more thing to overcome for a potential Faker. So here is the lightning port on the iPhone 14 pro Max and no text, no nothing.
So this is a change that they made exclusively for the 15 in order once again to enhance security and authenticity of their devices, but that isn’t going to stop companies. Individuals, manufacturers from making things that look a lot like iPhones and trying to sell them and, as I mentioned, some are better than others. If you take a trip around the world, you’ll even find entire marketplaces aimed at kind of creating counterfeits, some of them more distinguishable than others.
So here the packaging is doing no favor as far as convincing us that we’re actually buying an iPhone. These don’t even suggest that they are iPhones. Now, when you look for these things, online they’re often labeled as like I15 Pro, they won’t put the iPhone word in there.
They will sometimes block the Apple logo. Here we have an authentic iPhone 15 Pro. We have the Apple logo obviously represented over here now.
This is different from a mockup or like an early model of the device. These are functioning devices, running Android and usually some sort of skin. On there it looks like I’ve got a few different colors blue purple and black yeah, so the the unboxing experience is convincing.
Absolutely no one. However, the appearance of the device is actually kind of similar hold them up to each other. Here now I don’t know who’s going to get scammed.
In this scenario, I think most people who watch this channel would immediately look at this. They go yeah nice try, that’s not even close, but maybe to an unassuming buyer. If I peel this back off, like they definitely didn’t even try to put an Apple logo on this one, it just says HD screen on it, instead, which I’m not sure why you would care to have that element.
Exposed HD screen is not not necessarily something to brag about. We’Ve got all kinds of little protective materials on the camera lens and the surrounding housing. It also looks like it has a screen protector pre-installed. This is not something that Apple would ever do, and this one is not a great fake, because we’ve got a bigger chin and forehead there’s even a headphone jack on this model. Here I don’t know if the OS is going to be any more convincing than the device itself now one thing it has going for it is just like the real iPhone. It’S got a USBC port now at this point, but the construction is obviously plastic and it’s far oh the display it has an iOS skin on it. There is a screen protector on I’m going to peel it off, so this is obviously a skin on top of Android and we can figure that out by heading into settings and actually that didn’t take long at all. These are obviously not iOS settings. These are Android settings, so you would know immediately.
If I go to system, I mean there’s: Google services and preferences languages and input android keyboard. If you go to the about phone section, it’s labeled as I15 Pro Max 16 gigs of RAM 1 gig ROM Android version 12.0 Snapdragon, 8 gen 1. This episode is brought to you by better help. So everybody struggles. Sometimes I know myself. I struggle with procrastination with not necessarily doing the things that I should do exactly when I should do them. This could be staying up too late, knowing that I have to be up early the next morning and then being miserable the following day, but then your brain, it might just be racing. It might be too amped up and you’re having this difficulty with relaxation. Well, that’s where better help can help you out see therapy can help. You figure out exactly what’s holding you back so then you can start working for yourself.
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Funny also the way they attempted to integrate the dynamic Island, which is obviously not Dynamic, but instead just like a blacked out section, and then you still have your Android nav buttons, underneath your iOS skin. So like here you have your iTunes, icon and then below. There is your back button menu button which of course, are associated with Android.
So it’s not going to fool anybody here on this channel, maybe for somebody who is not immersed in Tech and is doing some sort of Meetup now you might say: oh well, that’s what they deserve if you’re going to fall! For that, that’s what you deserve! Listen! You have to have a Little Bit of Sympathy, not everybody’s as into Tech as you are, and then for others. They just want a product, that’s sort of feels and looks like an iPhone and they don’t really care if it’s a SPO, so some people knowingly buy these things at a massive discount in order to enjoy something they feel is close to an iPhone experience. It’S really kind of wild.
Let’S see what else you get in the Box here, a power, brick, that’s better than Apple – will, give you not very powerful. I can tell just by how lightweight this is. This must be like a 5 watt, adapter uh.
They also give you a usba, a Toc cable, a headset is included with a mini jack connector, and they give you a case. It’S always so weird to me that the less money you spend on a phone, the more you get with it. Is that weird? It’S like you know what it reminds me of you go to a fancy.
Restaurant! You get a smaller portion, you spend more money on the dish, you get less of it and you leave wishing you would have had more. You pay less. You get an absolute bucket full of food like I got $ 4 they’re like let us fill it up for you, that’s step, one! That’S our first and it’s a pro Max model. These also look like Pro Max models, but slightly different variant.
So this is going to be in the purple, which we know kind of a famous color for Apple in the previous generation device also says HD screen on it. It’S actually a nice color on a bogus unit, almost identical to Apple’s purple color from the 14 model. Shiny frame, which is not metallic, so you feel the plastic immediately and probably, if we boot this one up, I think we’re going to be greeted by the exact same. Like I mean come on, do you think apple is ever going to have this welcome screen like this, with the reflection below and the lack of capitalization, and the strange orange tone doesn’t strike me as an apple-esque thing to do everything else in the package is identical And we have one more color is similar to the newish blue color.
That Apple has come out with. I think people may have preferred this blue to the blue. They actually got from Apple. Is that possible? This is not a bad blue.
Another giveaway here, the fact that YouTube is pre-installed. As you know, it’s been a long time since YouTube came pre-installed on iOS devices. Those were the good days right, one less app to install, of course, you’re going to watch YouTube anyway. It was like a billion multi-billion dollar deal that Google had with apple the agreement to have YouTube on your iPhone out of the box in order to build that user base in the early days of YouTube. That’S a major flashback there, the camera app. This is going to be another giveaway.
It’S got to be at look at this camera quality, my God, I got to remove the cover the the little PL plastic in order to be fair Mo. This is not fair, I’m not being fair to the fake right now. So the lens W – I don’t know, let’s see here, here’s your main cam yeah. No, it’s not going to fly man. It is not going to fly wait. Do we only have one camera on here? The all the rest are bogus, no ability, I mean other than switching to the selfie camera, which I’ll try right now when you buy these phones that are like cheap, but really on the low end.
You notice right away. Everything looks like it’s kind of underneath a filter, there’s like a kind, a weird washed out glow to it, obviously a lack of detail as well. This is just the selfie camera, it’s not like unusable, but it really takes you back like a decade same thing on the rear camera it’s slightly better, but it is nowhere near what you would get out of an iPhone. So you could always do that.
Just take the phone they’re trying to sell you open the camera module and be like you know that image is not that great, I’m pretty sure that that’s not an iPhone, but that’s only if these other dead giveaways, like the Google Play, protect on the lock screen. If these things don’t make you aware immediately, then maybe you’ll make it into the camera area. Now, let’s go ahead and listen to the speaker, because that’s another one where iPhones have historically been uh fantastic performers. Granted there are some complaints about this year’s speaker units. I started to do a little bit of testing. If you want to see me run some tests on that maybe bring out the deciel meter. You can, let me know in the comments. This does, however, have an FM radio built in the headphones behave as the antenna for the FM radio copy copyright infringement.
How about the FM yeah? This speaker’s trash? Also, listen, no one’s falling for this one, but it is an illustration of the fact that there is an entire business and ecosystem around things that look like iPhones behave like iPhones. Have interfaces that try to fool you into thinking their iPhones and some of the fakes are even better than these. These ones are, and in some cases you may have a sealed box. That looks like you’re going to get one thing and then it’s actually something else.
Inside so hopefully, this video at least gives you some insight into some of the measures that apple is taking to help. You avoid picking up a device that is counterfeit, probably also partly their inventory system and their ability to quickly track and identify devices that might have something to do with it also, but the main thing is, it all starts at the box with the box, and this Comparison exists from the 15 Pro Max back to the 14 pro Max, so Apple will probably continue to make enhancements with future versions of iPhones, where those identifiers increasingly become complex and unique, and it still won’t stop anything, but it might curb it ever so slightly .